Table of Contents

This study is provided by ICPSR.
ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis
for a diverse and expanding social science research community.

ABC News/Washington Post Poll, May 1994 (ICPSR 6625)

Principal Investigator(s):
ABC News;
The Washington Post

Summary:

This poll, conducted May 12-15, 1994, is part of a
continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on
the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues.
Respondents were asked to give their opinions of President Bill
Clinton and his handling of the presidency and issues such as crime
and the situation in Haiti, and whether he was doing a better job
handling the economy and foreign affairs than former President George
H.W. Bush. Views were sought on Clinton's health care plan, the
nomination of Stephen G. Breyer to the United States Supreme Court,
and the ability of the federal government to solve problems. A series
of questions addressed Clinton's handling of the Haitian refugees
attempting to enter the United States by boat, whether he could be
trusted to make the right decisions regarding the United States role
in world affairs, and whether his handling of foreign affairs was
creating anti-American feelings overseas. Those polled also gave their
opinions of First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, former
Vice President Dan Quayle, Reform Party founder Ross Perot, and
Senator Bob Dole, and specific questions asked whether Quayle and
Perot were qualified to be president. Other questions focused on
President Clinton's role in the Whitewater investigation, the sexual
harassment charges made against him by former Arkansas state employee
Paula Jones, and whether respondents would vote for a Democrat or
Republican candidate if the upcoming United States House of
Representatives election were held that day. Additional topics covered
life after death, spirits, souls, near-death experiences,
reincarnation, heaven, hell, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and
extraterrestrial life. Demographic variables include sex, age, race,
marital status, labor union membership, employment status, household
income, education level, perceived social class, type of residential
area (e.g., urban, rural, etc.), religious preference, political party
affiliation, political orientation, and voter registration status and
participation history.

This poll, conducted May 12-15, 1994, is part of a
continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on
the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues.
Respondents were asked to give their opinions of President Bill
Clinton and his handling of the presidency and issues such as crime
and the situation in Haiti, and whether he was doing a better job
handling the economy and foreign affairs than former President George
H.W. Bush. Views were sought on Clinton's health care plan, the
nomination of Stephen G. Breyer to the United States Supreme Court,
and the ability of the federal government to solve problems. A series
of questions addressed Clinton's handling of the Haitian refugees
attempting to enter the United States by boat, whether he could be
trusted to make the right decisions regarding the United States role
in world affairs, and whether his handling of foreign affairs was
creating anti-American feelings overseas. Those polled also gave their
opinions of First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, former
Vice President Dan Quayle, Reform Party founder Ross Perot, and
Senator Bob Dole, and specific questions asked whether Quayle and
Perot were qualified to be president. Other questions focused on
President Clinton's role in the Whitewater investigation, the sexual
harassment charges made against him by former Arkansas state employee
Paula Jones, and whether respondents would vote for a Democrat or
Republican candidate if the upcoming United States House of
Representatives election were held that day. Additional topics covered
life after death, spirits, souls, near-death experiences,
reincarnation, heaven, hell, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and
extraterrestrial life. Demographic variables include sex, age, race,
marital status, labor union membership, employment status, household
income, education level, perceived social class, type of residential
area (e.g., urban, rural, etc.), religious preference, political party
affiliation, political orientation, and voter registration status and
participation history.

Universe:
Adults aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones.

Data Type(s):
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

(1) The data available for download are not weighted,
and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis. (2)
Additional information about sampling, interviewing, and sampling
error may be found in the codebook. (3) Original reports using these
data may be found via the
ABC News Polling
Unit Web site and via the
Washington
Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site. (4) A value label for an
unknown code was added in variables Q61 and Q63. (5) The CASEID
variable was created for use with online analysis.

Methodology

Sample:
Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within
households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the
household who last had a birthday and who was at home at the time of
interview.

Weight:
The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be
used in analyzing the data. This poll consists of "standard" national
representative samples of the adult population with sample balancing
of sex, race, age, and education.

Mode of Data Collection:
telephone interview

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Created online analysis version with question text.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release: 1997-05-16

Version History:

2007-11-20 SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files, and
SAS and Stata supplemental files have been added to this data
collection. Respondent names were removed from the data file and the
CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis. Value labels
were added for unknown codes in variables Q61 and Q63. Question text
has been added to the codebook, and the data collection instrument has
been taken out of the codebook and made into its own file.